The present invention concerns a swinging-and-sliding door for vehicles, especially mass-transit vehicles. A doorframe is mounted in an aperture in the side wall of the vehicle's body. Insulation extends around the edge of the door. The door opens in two mutually perpendicular steps. In the first step it swings out of the doorway-closed position and into a ready-to-slide position and in the second step it slides aside horizontally into a doorway-open position.
A swinging-and-sliding door of this genus is known from European Patent 196 488 B1 for instance. It is suspended at the upper edge and travels on tracks at the top and bottom. The suspension mechanism includes an overhead track extending in the direction the door slides in. The overhead track extends essentially over the total width of the doorway. The door is suspended from the track by, and slides along the track on, a hanger. The suspension mechanism swings out on levers during the first door-opening step and slides back along the outside of the body and into the doorway-open position during the second door-opening step. The mechanisms involved in suspending and maneuvering this door are relatively complicated.
German Patent 3 419 338 C2 and U.S. Pat. 4,932,715 describe exterior-mounted sliding doors for vehicles, motor vehicles for example. An arm is articulated halfway up the door or between halfway up and the bottom edge. A roller carriage is mounted on the arm. The roller carriage travels inside a track on the exterior of the body. Other tracks may be present as well. The track or tracks are designed to maneuver the door out of the doorway in one door-opening step and to one side in another door-opening step that is to some extent simultaneous with the first step. These designs are also relatively complicated approaches to maneuvering the door. Furthermore, it is difficult to reliably insulate the door all around its edge.